Red Sox 7, Orioles 3: Drew pummels O's, Ortiz pummels dugout phone

Saturday

Jul 27, 2013 at 9:53 PM

BALTIMORE -- Though the lingering memory of the evening will be the bat shards left behind by an irate David Ortiz in an explosion that required three coaches to restrain him, what mattered Saturday night was the way Stephen Drew and a previously mee

Brian MacPherson Journal Sports Writer brianmacp

BALTIMORE -- Though the lingering memory of the evening will be the bat shards left behind by an irate David Ortiz in an explosion that required three coaches to restrain him, what mattered Saturday night was the way Stephen Drew and a previously meek Red Sox batting order bludgeoned Baltimore pitching.

Drew hit a pair of home runs -- one an apparent inside-the-park shot deemed a traditional over-the-fence shot upon replay review -- to spark Boston to a 7-3 win over the Orioles at Camden Yards on Saturday. The win kept the Red Sox within a half-game of the first-place Tampa Bay Rays, victors at Yankee Stadium earlier Saturday afternoon.

"When he's had some down time, whether it was at the start of the year or coming back from the hamstring issue, he's very much a rhythm hitter, and he needs regular at-bats to get his timing. That's hopefully a sign of things to come," manager John Farrell said of Drew.

Entering play Saturday, the Red Sox had hit .216 with a .268 on-base percentage and .344 slugging percentage since the All-Star break, and they'd scored just 21 runs in seven games in that span. They broke out of their collective slump in a big way against Baltimore on Saturday.

Leading off the third inning, Drew ripped a single off the right-field wall and then scored on a Shane Victorino groundout. It was the first run the Red Sox had scored in 14 innings.

An inning later, Drew came to the plate with two outs and two runners on and launched a lazy 1-0 cutter from Scott Feldman into the right-field bleachers for a home run, his first since June 4. The three runs that scored on that home run alone were more than the Red Sox had scored in three of their previous four games combined -- losses to Matt Moore, David Price and Chris Tillman.

The overmatched Feldman was done an inning later, having allowed four earned runs in five innings. He has a 5.12 ERA in five starts since the Orioles acquired him from the Chicago Cubs.

When Drew came up with Jarrod Saltalamacchia on first base in the sixth inning, he did it again. Reliever Troy Patton left a fastball up and over the plate, and Drew hammered it toward the 373-foot market on the right-field fence. The ball appeared to skip off the top of the fence and back into play, and a confused Jarrod Saltalamacchia slowed down between second and third base. That caused Drew to be caught in between third base and home -- at which point the Orioles botched the rundown and allowed Drew to score anyway.

If only for statistical reasons -- maybe the first time in the brief history of instant replay that's happened -- the umpires reviewed the play and declared it a home run. The official scorer simultaneously ruled that, if the ball were deemed to be in play, it would have been an inside-the-park home run.

Either way, that made two home runs for Drew on the night, one more than fellow shortstop Jose Iglesias has hit all year. His seven on the season are one more than Dustin Pedroia has hit and one shy of Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Jonny Gomes. He's slugging .418.

Shane Victorino hit a solo home run of his own off reliever Jairo Asencio in the seventh inning -- at which point things got out of control.

David Ortiz took a 3-0 fastball that appeared to be above the letters and tossed his bat aside, but home-plate umpire Tim Timmons called it a strike -- continuing a long tradition of umpires expanding the strike zone on 3-0 pitches and shrinking it on 0-2 pitches. Ortiz was in disbelief.

Two pitches later, Ortiz struck out swinging. After exchanging words with Timmons, he marched back to the dugout and destroyed his bat with alarming force against the wall of the dugout -- almost impaling nearby Dustin Pedroia with the shards. That prompted Timmons to eject Ortiz. It took Farrell, bench coach Torey Lovullo and third-base coach Brian Butterfield to restrain Ortiz from Timmons.

"If you want to get respect from the player, you respect the players. That was horrible. Both of the pitches -- not one. I don't mind going to first base. What's the reason you've got to call pitches like that a strike? It was a ball where, if the catcher let it go, it would have [the umpire] him in the face," Ortiz said.

Pedroia then got in the face of Ortiz once he'd cooled down, reminding him either not do to anything to get himself suspended or that his explosion could have caused injury to a teammate in the dugout.

"He's the biggest part of our lineup. We can't lose David for one game," said Pedroia.

Twitter: @brianmacp

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